वेदों की प्राचीनता एवं काल-निर्णय / ओरायन (लोकमान्य बाल गंगाधर तिलक - खगोलीय वैदिक शोध)

340 THE ARCTIC HOME IN THE VEDAS. to denote the ocean or the sea in European languages. Thus- Bhartṛihari in his Vairâgya-Shataka (v. 76) says:—" Oh! how extensive, grand and patient is the body of the ocean! For here sleeps Keshava (Viṣhṇu); here the clan of his enemies (Vṛitra and other demons of darkness); here lie also the host of mountains (the parvata of the Vedas) in search of shelter; and here too (lies) the Mare's fire (submarine fire) with all the Saṁvartakas (clouds)." This is intended to be a summary of the Purâṇic legends regarding the ocean, but it can be easily seen that every one of them is based upon the Vedic concep- tion of the nature and movements of aerial waters, which formed the very material out of which the world was believed to be created. After this it is needless to explain why Âpaḥ occupied such an important place in the Vedic pantheon. Seven-fold Nine-fold and Ten-fold. It is stated above that the nether waters are divided after the manner of the heaven and the earth, either into three, seven or ten divisions. We have also seen that the ancient sacrificers completed their sacrificial session in seven, nine or ten months; and that the Navagvas and the Dashagvas are, therefore, sometimes mentioned together, sometimes separately and sometimes along with the seven sages or vipras. I have also breifly referred to the seven-fold division, which generally obtains not only in the Vedic, but also in other Aryan mytho- logies. But the subject deserves a fuller consideration, and I propose here to collect certain facts bearing upon it, which seem to have hitherto attracted but little attention. All that Yâska and Sâyaṇa tell us about the seven-fold division is that there are seven horses of the sun and seven tongues or flames of Agni, because the rays of the sun are seven in number; and the late Mr. S. P. Pandit goes so far as to assert that the seven rays here referred to may be the prismatic colours with which we are familiar in the Science of optics, or the seven